In this episode of the SALTovation podcast, we speak with Ed Sealover, senior reporter for Denver Business Journal (DBJ), Laurel Witt, associate counsel with Colorado Municipal League (CML), and our very own Judy Vorndran. Ed and Laurel break down the what, why and how of Colorado's Sales and Use Tax System (SUTS) , which is a destination-based tax system as a result of the Wayfair decision. They discuss some of the issues they have seen from participating businesses and jurisdictions.

Questions asked and answered in this Episode:

• How did Ed become aware of the SUTS issues and what is he following now on behalf of the businesses?
• 
  
• 
  
• Do businesses approach the Denver Business Journal as an outlet for their concerns?
• 
  
• 
  
• What is the Colorado Municipal League’s role in general?
• 
  
• 
  
• What does home rule mean?
• 
  
• 
  
• What has CLM heard or done to address the reluctants within the jurisdictions and municipalities they represent?
• 
  
• 
  
• What is Ed hearing from the business community on what they wished they knew more about?
• 
  
• 
  
• Did Laurel see the increase in online buying from the pandemic incentivized governments and jurisdictions to come on board?
• 
  
• 
  
• Is there a safe harbor with the SUTS that doesn’t go back on the business if a vendor messes your address up?
• 
  
• 
  
• What are the top two priorities for CML in 2021?
• 
  
• 
  
• What should we keep in mind or be aware of from a business perspective in relation to this sales tax shift?
• 
  

What You Will Discover:

• [01:55] How Ed became aware of the issues & what he’s following now
• 
  
• 
  
• [07:33] Colorado Municipal League’s role
• 
  
• 
  
• [09:57] What does home rule mean
• 
  
• 
  
• [16:24] Concerns with the inability to integrate SUTS with own website
• 
  
• 
  
• [22:20] What CML has done to address those reluctant
• 
  
• 
  
• [30:46] The issues with business licenses
• 
  
• 
  
• [36:20] What the business community wished they knew more about
• 
  
• 
  
• [38:54] How the increase in online spending incentivized governments and jurisdictions
• 
  
• 
  
• [42:47] A safe harbor system
• 
  
• 
  
• [51:35] CML’s top two priorities in 2021
• 
  
• 
  
• [53:20] What to keep in mind with the sales tax shift from a business perspective
• 
  

Quotables:

• “There’s a lot of concern that SUTS, while it’s wonderful for calculating and remitting taxes to the state, it’s not as useful unless you want to invest a decent amount of money hiring a contractor to interface SUTS with your website. It’s not as useful for interacting with your customers.” - Ed Sealover [17:17]
• 
  
• 
  
• “SUTS is not a one size fits all solution, nor is it really honestly a solution if you’re a multistate vendor selling outside of the state of Colorado.” - Judy Vorndran [18:00]
• 
  
• 
  
• “It is an issue that we have flagged and want to talk about again, because business licenses are something that I think are really problematic. Like there’s no way a business in Massachusetts cares about getting a business license in all the self-collecting home rules jurisdictions.” - Laurel Witt [31:57]
• 
  
• 
  
• “SUTS and the pandemic all kind of happened around the same time… in March of last year, which was a little bit chaotic for all of us. But as cities start seeing money coming in through that way, they just started jumping on SUTS a lot faster.” - Laurel Witt [39:32]
• 
  
• 
  
• “I think the question here is not completely how do we make sure that everyone complies. How do we make sure that compliance is not an overburdensome thing?” - Ed Sealover [54:19]
• 
  

Relevant Links:

Ed Sealover on Twitter: @ESealoverDenBiz

Ed Sealover on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ed-sealover-71116416a/

Denver Business Journal: bizjournals.com/denver

Laurel Witt on Twitter: @COMuniLawyer

Laurel Witt on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/laurelwitt

Colorado Municipal League: cml.org

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app:

https://saltovation.captivate.fm/listen

https://linktr.ee/taxops 

Follow Us on Socials

https://www.linkedin.com/company/taxops-llc

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMB1ZQNGXM_F777SIEl8Vjw 

Talk To A Tax Advocate Today

TaxOps Website: https://taxops.com/contact/

Production Support

This episode was produced with support from Truth Work Media. www.truthworkmedia.com

Mentioned in this episode:

SALT Contact

SALT Contact